Another high-profile interfaith wedding: Lauren Bush and David Lauren

Lauren Bush, the granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush, is engaged to David Lauren, the son of famous Jewish designer Ralph Lauren. David is an executive in the fashion industry. (Ralph's wife and David's mother, Ricky, is not Jewish.) Lauren is a model and fashion designer, and is the daughter of Neil Bush, the younger brother of George and Jeb.

No word on whether she will be taking her husband's last name.

Here's some background on David's Jewish heritage: Despite his strong association with the uber-WASPy, Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Reuben Lifshitz to Jewish immigrants from Belarus and attended a Jewish day school and yeshiva as a child.

In a 2002 interview with Oprah, he revealed that he changed his name as a teenager because it had the word "shit" in it - "it had nothing to do with not being proud of who I am," he said - and that if he could go back in time, he's not sure he would do it again. He explained that he "absolutely" celebrates Jewish holidays and is proud of his heritage - but, as Oprah wisely pointed out, "I don't know if I'd want to buy the Lifshitz towels."

Comments

Posted by LuckyLenny1970
12/17/2010 at 05:17 AM

failed reform & conservative movements

• Just another sad example of the failed reform & conservative movements. Also, if the groom’s mother is not a Jew, then the groom is not a Jew. The damage was done back when the Jewish father married out of the faith.

What makes you think that Ralph Lauren’s wife, Ricky Low-Beer, is not Jewish?

Her maiden name (“Low-Beer”) is exclusively Jewish. That doesn’t mean she’s entirely of Jewish descent, of course, but it’s a start.

(And yes, I know there’s some weird profile of Lauren in a lazy site that calls his wife a “blonde shiksa goddess”, but I imagine the level of accuracy there is exactly of the type you would expect from a site that uses the phrase “blonde shiksa goddess”.